RGMotorsport’s first supercharged Toyota 86 has come
storming out of their Strydom Park workshop…from where it headed straight to
Gerotek to record some very impressive performance numbers. These include a top
speed of 258.8 kilometres an hour, a 0 – 120 km/h sprint of 8.9 seconds and a
standing kilometre in 26.4 seconds at a terminal speed of almost 205 km/h...
As part of the validation process, the car was also put
through its paces by teenage race sensation Jacques ‘The Stiglet’ Joubert, who
pronounced himself highly impressed after a bruising day of hot laps at
Zwartkops. After pounding around the Pretoria circuit without a hiccup, The
Stiglet stopped the clocks with a 1 min 14.5 second lap, which he felt was a
good indication of the car’s pace.
“The RGMotorsport 86 Supercharged is great fun,” enthused
the teenager, who is far more chatty than his taciturn namesake. “The power
delivery is so smooth and predictable, you can drive it really sideways!
Whereas before the gearshift paddles were just there for show, now the car
really feels racy when you go up the ‘box with them.”
At this point an important fact needs to be mentioned: as
you may have deduced from the reference to shift paddles, all these numbers
were garnered with an automatic transmission car, which is normally woefully
short of urge at Reef altitude. Despite its sporty aspirations and undisputed
ability through the twisties, existing owners of the two-pedal version have grown
accustomed to seeing all but the most limp-wristed of family cars disappearing
into the distance.
When we tested this very car in standard form some months
back we managed a rather lame 0 – 120 km/h of 14.1 seconds, a kilometre taking
more than half a minute. Not the kind of numbers that you want to trot out
around the braai, unless you want to give your mates a good chuckle.
The solution as RGM sees it is to upgrade the 147 kW
naturally-aspirated flat four to a 220 kW/315 Nm forced induction one. That’s a
50 percent increase in grunt and as is their wont, RGM has achieved this with
the help of a Vortech bolt-on blower – imported from the USA in kit form – and
fitted in the workshop by a team of skilled technicians.
In fact this conversion – in which every nut, bolt and
washer arrives in a box which also contains an intercooler – is really simple
by RGM’s standards. With many Supercharged conversions a variety of components
need to be designed and manufactured from scratch, but they’ve taken a
different approach here, which has helped them keep price down and reduce
turnaround time.
Forcing the air into the intercooler is a V-3 H67BC
centrifugal supercharger and this particular unit is designed specifically for
the horizontally-opposed FA20 Boxer engine. The package incorporates a
generously-sized airbox and an optimised filter housing which allows for
additional flow while retaining the factory cold air ram intake.
One of the most important parts of the conversion is the
work done by RGM’s dynamometer gurus post-installation. To this end a Unichip
auxiliary engine management computer is used to remap ignition, air and fuel
requirements, ensuring consistent power and reliability when running on
standard 95 octane pump fuel.
Says RGMotorsport’s managing member Rob Green: “I believe we
really hit the sweet spot with this conversion and it works exceptionally well.
There are no sacrifices when it comes to smoothness and drivability and the
power delivery is fierce without being scary. Drive it normally and you
wouldn’t actually know it is Supercharged, but when you put your foot down and
flip the paddles down a ratio or two it really goes.
“Now we’ve finished the first automatic our focus shifts to
the three-pedal version, and we’ve got our eye set on getting a sub-six second
0 – 100 km/h sprint out of it – that’ll certainly put it in the major league as
far as sports cars go.”
The Toyota 86 RGM Supercharged costs R85 000 including a
Techniflow exhaust system, and comes with a six month or 20 000 km
warranty on all components used in the conversion.
STORY AND PICS COURTESY OF ROADWORX COMMUNICATIONS
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